Murphy has normally traveled alone and unaided, without luxuries
and depending on the hospitality of local people. She has been in
dangerous situations; for example, she was attacked by wolves in
the former Yugoslavia, threatened by soldiers in Ethiopia, and
robbed in Siberia. However, she described her worst incident as
tripping over cats at home and shattering her left arm.[3][4]

Early
life

Dervla Murphy was born and raised in Lismore, County Waterford.
Her parents were from Dublin
and had moved to Lismore when her father was appointed county librarian. When Murphy was
one year old, her mother developed rheumatoid arthritis, from which
she suffered for the rest of her life. They were advised not to
have any more children, and Dervla grew up as an only child. From a young
age, Murphy planned to travel:[5]

For my tenth birthday my parents gave me a second-hand bicycle
and Pappa [her grandfather] sent me a second-hand atlas. Already I
was an enthusiastic cyclist, though I had never before owned a
bicycle, and soon after my birthday I resolved to cycle to India
one day. I have never forgotten the exact spot, on a steep hill
near Lismore, where this decision was made. Half-way up I rather
proudly looked at my legs, slowly pushing the pedals around, and
the thought came "If I went on doing this for long enough I could
get to India."

Murphy attended secondary school at the Ursuline Convent in Waterford, but left at age
14 to take care of her disabled mother. During her young adulthood
she took a number of short trips (between 3 and 6 weeks): to Wales and Southern
England in 1951; to Belgium, Germany, and France in 1952; and two trips to Spain in 1954 and 1956. She
published a number of travel articles in the Hibernia journal and the Irish
Independent newspaper, but her Spanish travel book was rejected
by publishers.[5]

Murphy's first lover, Godfrey, died abroad in 1958 and her
father became unexpectedly ill with nephritis, a complication of influenza, and died in
February 1961. Her mother's health had been deteriorating for many
years, and she died in August 1962. Her mother's death freed Murphy
from her domestic duties and allowed her to make the extended trip
for which she had long planned:[5]

The hardships and poverty of my youth had been a good
apprenticeship for this form of travel. I had been brought up to
understand that material possessions and physical comfort should
never be confused with success, achievement and security.

Travels and
writing

Full Tilt and
other early writings

In 1963, Murphy set off on her first long-distance bicycle tour
- a self-supported trip from Ireland to India. Taking a pistol along with other equipment aboard
Roz, her Armstrong Cadet bicycle, she passed through Europe during one of the worst winters in years. In Yugoslavia,
Murphy began to write a journal instead of mailing letters. In Iran she used her gun to frighten off
a group of thieves, and "used unprintable tactics" to escape from
an attempted rapist at a police station. She received her worst
injury of the journey on a bus in Afghanistan, when a rifle butt hit her and
fractured three ribs; however, this only delayed her for a short
while. She wrote appreciatively about the landscape and people of
Afghanistan, calling herself "Afghanatical" and claiming that the
Afghan "is a man after my own heart." In Pakistan, she visited Swat (where she
was a guest of the last wali, Miangul
Aurangzeb) and the mountain area of Gilgit. The final leg of her trip took her
through the Punjab
region and over the border to India towards Delhi. Her journal was later published by John Murray as her first book
Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle.[6]

After arriving in Delhi, Murphy volunteered to work with Tibetan
refugees under the auspices of Save the Children. She spent five
months in a refugee camp in Dharamsala run by Tsiring Dolma, sister of
the 14th Dalai
Lama. She then cycled through the Kullu Valley, spending
Christmas in Malana. Her journals for this
time were published in her second book, Tibetan
Foothold.

On returning to Europe, Murphy took part in a fundraising
campaign for Save the Children[5],
and in 1965 she worked with another group of Tibetan refugees in Pokhara, Nepal (described in The Waiting
Land).

In 1966, Murphy made her first trip to Africa. She travelled to Ethiopia and walked with a pack mule from Asmara to Addis Ababa, confronted by Kalashnikov-carrying soldiers on the way. This
journey was described in her fourth book, In Ethiopia with a
Mule.

Travels with
Rachel

Murphy's daughter Rachel accompanied her on a trip to India at
the age of five; they flew into Bombay and traveled to Goa and Coorg (described in On a Shoestring to
Coorg). The pair later journeyed to Baltistan (Where the Indus is
Young), South
America (Eight Feet in the Andes), and Madagascar (Muddling
through in Madagascar). Their last trip was through Cameroon on a horse, where
Dervla was frequently mistaken for Rachel's husband (Cameroon
with Egbert).

A child's presence emphasises your trust in the community's
goodwill. And because children pay little attention to racial or
cultural differences, junior companions rapidly demolish barriers
of shyness or apprehension often raised when foreigners
unexpectedly approach a remote village.

Murphy stated that some readers disapproved of the "political
stuff", but another group "tells me they haven't thought about
these things in this way before and are glad that I've written and
thought more about the political side. My view is that I have these
things I want to say and I don't really care if it spoils a pure
travel book."[1]

"Irish
babushka"

In 2002, aged 71, Murphy planned to cycle in the Ussuriland region of eastern Russia. She broke her knee while
on the Baikal Amur Mainline railway, then
tore a calf while recuperating at Lake Baikal and her plans changed to a
journey around Siberia by
train, boat and bus, documented in Through Siberia by
Accident. She revisited Siberia and wrote a companion book,
Silverland. In 2005, she visited Cuba with her daughter and three granddaughters,
and made two returning trips in 2006 and 2007 (described in The
Island that Dared).

Personal life and
interests

Murphy never married. In 1968 she gave birth to her only child,
Rachel, fathered by Irish Times journalist Terence
de Vere White.[9] Her
decision to raise her daughter alone was described as "a brave
choice in 1960s Ireland" by The Sunday Business Post,
although she said she felt safe from criticism because she was in
her 30s and was financially and professionally secure.[8]
Following Rachel's birth, she spent five years as a book reviewer
before returning to travel writing.[1]

Murphy lives in Lismore with five dogs and three cats.[3]
She is a patron of Sustrans, a British charity for sustainable
travel[10] and of
the Lismore Immrama festival of travel writing.[11][12]